The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology said today it has won a $100,000 grant from the Jane K. Lowe Charitable Foundation to help establish a clinical genomics program.
The foundation said the $100,000 will provide funds to support five new HudsonAlpha faculty members “who will work with existing faculty to bring scalable, cost effective, genomic medicine to the residents of Madison County (AL) and beyond.
“The Jane K. Lowe Charitable Foundation is excited that our grant will assist HudsonAlpha to bring genomic medicine to our region and to become a leader in this rapidly developing technology,” said John Wynn, a board member of the foundation. “During her lifetime, Mrs. Lowe was a generous supporter of medical research. This grant enables our foundation to carry on Mrs. Lowe’s legacy by supporting this innovative approach to patient care.”
Each year the Foundation distributes the greater of its net income or 5% of its value, as follows: 60% to six named charities and 40% to charitable organizations chosen by its trustees.
In a separate statement, HudsonAlpha said it has recently recruited the five, which it described as “world-renowned” investigators specializing in genomic medicine who will support the new clinical genomics program.
Next month, HudsonAlpha will open what it said was the world’s first clinic solely for the practice of genomic medicine. The new clinic will make use of HudsonAlpha’s fully-accredited and certified clinical sequencing laboratory, designed to provide clinically-validated and interpreted genomic information for physicians worldwide.
Located in Huntsville, AL, HudsonAlpha carries out genomic data analysis and interpretation toward research into areas that include cancer, undiagnosed childhood genetic disorders, neuropsychiatric disorders, immune-mediated disease, agriculture and public health.
“From the beginning, the mission of HudsonAlpha’s mission has been to utilize the power of genomics to help improve lives. I can’t think of a better way to do that than to use what we know about the genomic sequence to identify the causes of unknown diseases and help identify new therapies for some of the sickest patients,” said Richard M. Myers, PhD, president and scientific director of HudsonAlpha. “We are deeply grateful to the Jane K. Lowe Foundation for this gift.”